Ancient Egypt – Pharaoh Akhenaten
- dwworldhistory
- 3 days ago
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DW | Ancient Egypt
17– Pharaoh Akhenaten
Welcome to the DW World History Series. In the last episode, we discussed the 'Golden Age of Ancient Egypt'. We left off with the death of Amenhotep III and the rise of his son, Akhenaten. This biography highlights King Akhenaten. The most unique Pharaoh to have ever ruled Egypt, he attempted to change the very foundation of Egyptian thought, and directly challenged the priests of Amun.
17.1 – Early Years
Ancient Egypt is the most conservative society in the history of the world. As we've discussed before, 'change' was considered bad. Where does the conservatism come from? Part of it comes from the environment. The Egyptians basically have an unchanging climate. The sun rises everyday, it sets everyday, the sky is clear...etc. Also the Nile River is consistent. The flooding of the Nile is so consistent that it can be scheduled and is vital to their agriculture. But there is more to it than that.
Their art is meant to remain the same, it is considered permanent. Think of the tomb paintings, they were meant to last forever. Art for the Ancient Egyptians was basically paint-by-numbers. They put down a grid and filled it in; there was little creativity. Creativity was not a virtue. The Egyptians didn't even have a word for artists, and unlike the Greeks, no piece of art was ever signed by the artist. The Egyptian religion was unchanging. They honored the same gods for 2,000 years.
The concept for these permanent structures was called ma'at – meaning 'divine order'. The status-quo. Change was bad; change was disorder; change was chaos. Through Akhenaten, change would be in everything. The status of the pharaoh, the military, and the Egyptian religion would be turned upside down.
Known as Amenhotep IV before he changed his name to Akhenaten, he became the crown prince during his father's reign, as featured in the last episode. Crown Prince Tuthmosis was originally to succeed his father, but died relatively young and the throne passed to his younger brother. Debate circulates whether his father, Amenhotep III, used Amenhotep IV as a co-regent. Nevertheless, he became king upon his father's death.
The beginning of Amenhotep IV's reign, in 1352 BC, marked no great discontinuity with that of his predecessors. Not only was he crowned at the temple of the god of Amun, in Karnak, but like his father, he married a lady of non-royal blood, Nefertiti, the daughter of the vizier Kheperkheperure Ay. Nefertiti's mother is not known, but Ay was the brother of Queen Tiye.
Nefertiti was made famous by her statue, which is one of the most copied works of ancient Egypt. It was attributed to the sculptor Thutmose, and it was found in his workshop. The bust is notable for exemplifying the understanding Ancient Egyptians had regarding realistic facial proportions. It is described as the most famous bust of ancient art, comparable only to the mask of Tutankhamun.
17.2 - The Aten and the City of Akhetaten
Initially, Amenhotep IV lived with Nefertiti and his six daughters at Thebes. He built several massive buildings at Karnak, including temples to the god Aten. The god was usually depicted as a sun disk with rays extending with long arms and tiny human hands at each end. The Aten was not a new deity, but had been venerated since the Old Kingdom as a relatively minor aspect of the sun god Ra.
Year 5 of Amenhotep IV's reign changed everything. He disbanded the priesthoods of all other gods and diverted the income of these cults to support the Aten, which he was establishing as the sole god of Egypt. To emphasize his complete allegiance to the Aten, he officially changed his name from Amenhotep IV to Akhenaten, 'Living Spirit of Aten'.
He also began construction of a new capital called Akhetaten, 'The Horizon of the Aten'. Known as el-Amarna, it was a virgin site not previously dedicated to any gods or goddesses. To speed up construction of the city, which was located halfway between Memphis and Thebes, most of the buildings were erected with mud-brick and white washed. The most important buildings were faced with local stone. Amarna is the only ancient city which preserved great details of its internal plan, in large part because the city was abandoned after the death of Akhenaten. Bob Brier notes, “Akhetaten was an entire city built at one time to the glory of one god.” This was a first for the history books.
Akhenaten centralized Egyptian religious practices in Akhetaten, though construction of the city remains to have continued for several more years. His temples to Aten were constructed on a massive scale and were open to the sunlight, unlike the dark temple enclosures as before.
In Year 9, Akhenaten banned all images except the solar disk and declared that the Aten was not merely supreme god, but the only god to worship. In doing this, he created the world's first monotheistic religion, noting 'There is no god but the Aten.' This was an incredible declaration in a world of polytheistic religions; an abstract god with no image. This must have been a very confusing time for the Egyptians. They never had an abstract god before. They were use to gods you could create in statues, something physical. With Akhenaten, now you had the rays of the sun, only one god, something way ahead of its time... something truly amazing.
An interesting message, and one to consider, Akhenaten wrote that the Aten was the god of everyone: the Syrians, Palestinians, and Nubians. This belief changed the divine order. With this concept, Egypt was no longer special in a sense, 'The Aten shines on everyone'.
Akhenaten presented himself as the only intermediary between Aten and his people. He ordered the defacing of Amun's temples throughout Egypt and made a complete break from the priests of Amun.
In the tomb of Ay occurs the longest and best rendition of a composition known as the “Hymn to the Aten', said to have been written by Akhenaten himself. Quite moving in itself as a piece of poetry, its similarity to Psalm 104 has long been noted. It sums up the whole ethos of the Aten cult and especially the concept that only Akhenaten had access to the god:
'Thou arisest fair in the horizon of heaven, O Living Aten,
Beginner of Life...There is none who knows thee save
thy son Akhenaten. Thou hast made him wise in thy
plans and thy power.' -Hymn to the Aten
No longer did the dead call upon Osiris to guide them through the afterworld; for only through the intercession of Akhenaten could they hope to live beyond the grave. On a wider scale, throughout Egypt, this new cult does not seem to have had much effect at a common level. Ordinary people had little to do with the religious establishment anyway, and these changes only affected the high days and holidays.
Styles of art that flourished during this short period were extremely different from other Egyptian art. Akhenaten and his family were shown with elongated heads, protruding stomachs, heavy hips, thin arms and legs, and exaggerated facial features. The reason for these representations remain unknown and is a vigorously debated question. For the only time in the history of Egyptian royal art, the pharaoh's family were shown taking part in normal family activities, showing affection for each other, and being caught in mid action, in contrast to the traditional art where the pharaoh's divine nature was expressed by repose and even immobility.
The standard bureaucracy continued to run the country while Akhenaten courted his god. While isolating himself in his new capital, he increasingly left the government and diplomats to their own devices. The civil administration of the government was run by his chief minister, Ay, Akhenaten's father-in-law. The military was controlled by General Horemheb, who had married Nefertiti's sister. Both men were to become Pharaoh before the 18th Dynasty ended. This pair of closely related officials no doubt kept everything under control in a discreet manner while Akhenaten pursued his own philosophical and religious interests. This wasn't perfect, however. Egypt was still being ignored. Without a strong leadership in the political field, Egypt began to lose foreign connections and began to become isolated from the rest of the world. The military, although still strong, was also being neglected.
17.3 - The Amarna Letters
Akhenaten did correspond with various heads of state which are detailed in the Amarna letters. Begun by his father, these letters provide important evidence about Akhenaten's reign and foreign policy. Most of these letters to Akhenaten complain about the lack of troop support or plead for gold from the Pharaoh, and afterward, often complain that he snubbed or cheated them.
'May my brother send me much gold... in my brother's country, gold is as plentiful as dust.' -Tushratta, King of Mitanni, to Akhenaten
Most of these appeals went unheeded by the king, who was far too concerned with his new religion to take notice of such requests. In contrast, he did pay close attention to the affairs of the Levant. Often criticized for neglecting Egypt's international relations, Akhenaten did manage to preserve Egypt's control over the core of the Near Eastern territory.
The historical record becomes unclear until the succession of Tutankhamun. It was originally thought that Nefertiti died in Year 12 of his reign, which was the last dated appearance of the Amarna family. However, in December of 2012, an inscription was found in the limestone quarry at Deir el-Bersha, just north of Amarna. Dated explicitly to Akhenaten's 16th Year of reign, it mentions in the same breathe, the presence of a Queen Nefertiti. The text refers to a building project in Amarna, and establishes that Akhenaten and Nefertiti were still a royal couple just a year before Akhenaten's death.
17.4 - Tomb (KV55)
Akhenaten may have been buried in the royal tomb at Amarna. What is certain, is that his body did not remain there. The return to orthodoxy unleashed a backlash of destruction and Akhenaten's body was reburied in the Valley of the Kings. Genetic tests have confirmed that the body found in (KV55) was the father of Tutankhamun, and therefore most probably Akhenaten.
The tomb was composed of an entryway (A) followed by a single corridor (B) leading directly into the burial chamber (J) and its side chamber (Ja). The tomb contained numerous Amarna era objects, including a royal funerary mask which had been deliberately destroyed. His sarcophagus was also destroyed, but has been reconstructed by modern Egyptologists.
An interesting side note of history... (KV55) was later used as a dark room by photographer Harry Burton during Howard Carter's excavation of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1923.
The succession of kings at the end of the 18th Dynasty is a matter of great debate and confusion due to the lack of written sources. Smenkhkare, who was possibly Akhenaten's brother or son, was the nominal successor to the throne. But he may have died months after his succession and the throne passed to a shadowy figure known as Neferneferuaten, who was either one of his daughters or Nefertiti, herself. She was, in turn, most likely succeeded by Tutankhamun, with the country being administered by the chief vizier and future pharaoh, Ay.
We feature the famous King Tut in the next episode.
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